Chapter 10: A family-Act One, Scene Two

We've left our wayward husband to look into the scene he described:  Jacob’s Well, just outside the town.  It the afternoon of that same day.  A group of women are talking at the well, filling urns with water.  They are gossipy, lighthearted and confident.  A man enters unseen and sits nearby.  He carries himself with the weariness of a constant traveler; a man a long way from home.  He sits on a rock and listens to their conversation.  So will we.

Esther Deborah, you have the patience of Job.  I don't know how you put up with it.

Rachel She has to.  We all do.  But we have our ways to get back what's ours. 

They all laugh

.

Deborah – But you haven’t heard the latest.

Esther – Good news, I hope.

Rachel – Tell us, sister.  Don’t leave us waiting.

Deborah – He came home this morning.

Rachel –  He just walked right in?

Deborah – Like nothing had ever happened...

Esther – You're not serious.

Deborah – ... and started washing his hands and face.

Esther – That's not all he should be washing.  I mean.... he should be washing Deborah’s feet

Rachel – Oh, of course. 

Rachel winks and the rest of the women grin.

Deborah – Then he kisses the children and says, "I'm off to work.  I'll be home for dinner." Then he takes my hand and gives me those eyes.  "We'll talk later," he says.

Esther – So you'll take him back?

Deborah –Of course.  He's a good provider.  And like you said:  we have our ways.

Rachel – Make him grovel, Deborah!

Esther – Like the dog he is.

Deborah – Yes... just like a dog.

Esther – But what about that woman?

Deborah – What about her?  Have you seen her lately?  She's not what she was when she took my husband, just like she wasn't what she claimed when she came to Sychar.  She'll not be stealing many more husbands here.  In fact, I don't expect the town will allow her to stay much longer.  

All – That’s right!

The traveler watches as they gather their 

jugs and leave.  Mary enters shortly after carrying her urn.  

She looks around to see if she's alone and then begins filling the urn.  

The traveler observes her quietly for a moment,  and smiles as 

though recognizing a long-lost relative.  He calls out to her.

Traveler – May I have a drink?

Mary –  Oh!  I didn't see you there.  Wait.... You’re a Jew, aren’t you?  I am a Samaritan.  You are not supposed to be talking with me.  How can you ask me for a drink? 

Traveler – If you knew who I was and what I can offer you, you would have asked me and I would have given you living water.

Mary – I don’t understand.  You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where would you get this living water?   (Proudly) Just who do you think you are, anyway.  Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?

The traveler comes over to the well and 

looks down into its depths.  He shrugs, unimpressed.

Traveler – Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks my water will never thirst again.  If fact, my water will become in him a spring of water overflowing with eternal life.

Real prophets are in short supply in Palestine, 

but Mary knew they are capable of great miracles.

Mary – (mumbling to herself) If I can win his favor, he might be able to get God to give me my own well.  I would never have to come here again.  I could open my own inn.  I could leave this town.  (angrily) I wouldn't need anybody ... not even a husband!

Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.

Traveler – First, go get your husband and come back.

Mary – I ... I have no husband.

Traveler –Yes, I know.  The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you have now is not your husband.  It's quite true, isn't it.

Mary has often been unclothed in front of a man, 

but she has never felt naked as she did now. 

She stammers and tries to change the subject.

Mary – Sir, I can see that you are a prophet.  

Searching for lost piety, she grasps for a fig leaf.

Mary – Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem...

Traveler – I am too weary to continue this dance.  Listen to me.  Soon you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.  You Samaritans really don't know what you worship, but we do, for salvation comes from the Jews.  But today true worshipers are worshipping the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth. 

She believes she is safe now, hidden behind a 

false robe of religion.  It is time to close 

this conversation and move on.  There will be be no 

miraculous provision this time.  Or so she thinks.

Mary -- I know that Messiah is coming.  When he comes, he will explain everything to us.

Traveler– The Messiah is talking to you now. 

When confronted by real power, it often takes a moment 

to come to full acceptance.  It takes Mary a full five seconds.  

She gasps and stares, open-mouthed, 

not realizing that the Traveler's friends are approaching.  

They are surprised to find him talking with this 

woman and begin to question him about her.  
Seeing an opportunity to escape this uncomfortable 

moment, she flees, leaving the very symbol of her 

shame and imprisonment in Sychar: her water jar.  

She runs for the marketplace

Legislating morality

Sorry it's been a while since I last wrote, but January and February were extremely busy. finally got a couple of days off to think about things other than work and I have a notebook full of ideas, but today I wanted to take up the issue of legislating morality.

I don't believe it can be done, but there are many who think otherwise and point to laws against murder as proof. But my point is that while you can pass laws against or for anything, it doesn't change the moral climate of a society. Murder is still a prevalent crime throughout our society in spite of laws and punishments against it. The US founding fathers put the restrictions on government interference in religion for a reason and this is one of them.

(Note I did not say the separation of church and state, which is a misunderstood concept. The premise was not to keep the influence of religion out of government, but to limit government endorsement control of religion. Interpretation in the past 100 years has reversed the intent of the concept.)

A good example of what I am talking about is the attitude regarding abortion in the US. Both sides of this highly polarized issue are pushing for government intervention in what is ultimately a moral decision. When life begins is not the issue, but when life attains a right to life is. And that decision is based on one's theology, not politics. Therefore the decision rests in the individual. There are any number of laws and legislation that are meant to control access and availability of abortion but none of them have had any affect on how many abortions are performed in the US.

Some might point to the Roe v. Wade decision as the legalization of abortion, but that isn't the case. What happened in that decision was the government actually started taking notice. Statistics on abortion were not really reliable until 1970 because many abortion were done in private and reporting was not required, and they continued to climbe after Roe- v Wade in 1973. After 1979, however the the number of abortions flattened out and started a steading decline beginning in 1990. After some thorough checking, there really wasn't any major change in US legislation against abortion in 1990 and beyond, nor were there any major legal precedent changes. So what was it that caused abortion to flatten out and then decline?

A little more checking and I found that in 1974 a movement promoted by the evangelical community, Crisis Pregnancy Centers, became a real force by the early 1980s and went into ascension in 1990 as it attained the same government support levels as Planned Parenthood. The centers have changed names a couple of times since then but the work is still pretty much the same: offer an alternative to Planned Parenthood's abortion bias. Some people on the pro-choice side claim the CPC dogma is deceptive, but pro-lifers say the same about Planned Parenthood, so I think the rhetoric balances out.

Here's my point: The morality of abortion was not legislated. The state just said, leave us out of it. It's up to people to make moral choices like this and the church is better equipped for that job. Abortion and teen pregnancy are steadily declining all over the country not because of legislation, but because people of faith decided to start doing their job and provide a second moral option. What's more, they did it in a loving, non-judgmental manner. (you might have had a different experience with the CPC people, but the one's I know provided information on abortion services to anyone who really wanted them and did it without making the client feel guilty.)

If there are issues of morality that you are concerned about, don't look to the government to fix it. That job belongs to the church and it's about time we started doing our job. We already know it works.

Self-inflicted wounds with purpose

In the first chapter of 1 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul sets out the premise that "God chose what is nonsense in the world to make the wise feel ashamed. God chose what is weak in the world to make the strong feel ashamed." It's a wrap of a longer section on division and how to get around it. After almost 2000 years, the church (organized) is still trying to figure it out. If we're all lucky, they may never figure it out.

When you read the history of organized religion, you wonder how it has lasted this long. Seems very silly. The controversy over gay marriage is but the latest round. The thing is, gay marriage is just the symptom of the real issue. the real issue is over the preeminence of law or grace. The bad news is that law always "seems" to win because law is always the basis of worldly "wisdom." That wisdom, however, is what God considers to be foolishness.

Organized religion has relied on government for 1700 years to enforce it's view of morality. As I mentioned before, it started fairly innocently with Constantine's request of the church to police marriage (looks like we've come almost full circle on that one). That passed on the through the growth of the Catholic and Orthodox churches. Martin Luther tried to bring grace back into dominance, but reformers like Knox brought law right back.

In modern times, the church required the government to ban the teaching of evolution (The church won the Scopes Monkey Trial, you know) formed the anti-abortion lobby and now is fighting gay marriage. But if the church had been doing its job, none of these controversies would be with us right now. Abortion would be legal but much rarer than it is today. Creationism would be taught in school alongside evolution and even gay rights would cease to be an issue. All of these controversies were brought about by the church relying on the government to protect it's view of morality. Initially they were successful. but every time the church gave over its moral authority to the government, their position was weakened and a wall between the church and the society it tries to reach grew thicker and taller.

"What the heck is the church's job, then?" I hear some people ask. Good question. I'l answer that next.